About the Art of Cynthia Gaub
Cynthia is an Educator and an Artist working and living in the Seattle, WA Area. She loves to create in a number of mediums, including: collage, fabric, artistamps, mixed media, and clay.
Teaching Adults and Children of all ages is a rewarding vocation and she shares her lessons in digital art, artistamps, clay and mixed media here on Squidoo and on other places in the World Wide Web.
About the Art of Cynthia Gaub
Symbolism, feminism, pattern, collage, color, guardian angels and old picture frames collide to provide a window to the soul of an artist.
I have been creating art since my earliest days as a child. Creativity is in my blood, and I would stagnate horribly if I didn't keep art in my life. As a result, I have surrounded myself with many wonderfully gifted and artistic people.I have found MANY outlets for my creative gifts and energies. They include Artistamps, mailart, zines, visual journals, collage and drawing; domestic type things like sewing, cooking and gardening; and more recently technological things like web desgin, digital collage and desktop/newsletter publishing.
Over the years my work and identity as an artist has solidified to what I believe is a cohesive body of work and a definitive style. My collage and mixed media work is a perspective of the female form, by a female. By reducing existing images to an elemental point, the resultant collages are sensual and colorful constructs that suggest redefinition of the cultural views of women. My work continues to be an exploration of my own femininity and my place in the world.
Be it paper or fabric, on glass or in books, my work is always about my journey through life. Early pieces show a struggle with sexuality, relationships and matters of the body and heart.
Later my work reflected my spiritual questions and searching. As I become more settled into my adulthood, my work turns to understanding the more subtle aspects of personality and choices in life.
I know that my work will change and grow on this journey of mine, but I believe a style of strong lines and bold colors will weave its way though all of the pieces.
Thank you for looking at my work, I hope you enjoy my style and perspective.
Interviews Of Cynthia Gaub
people who talked with the artist and cared enough to publish it
- Artist Profile interview - Cynthia Gaub - Paper and Mixed Media Collage
- Interview at EBSQ
- Featured Artist: Sheba
- An interview with Sheba of the Eyeland of Exoticia. by Amy E. Badurina AKA Moderngypsy now Eliza Metz.
- Collage art explores views of women
- Pretty much straight from the press release, a print article about one of my shows.
- Collage art explores views of women
- Symbolism, feminism, pattern, collage, guardian angels and old picture frames collide to provide a window to the soul of an artist.
Why Windows?
The collage on glass style of Cynthia's Work
From 1992 till 2002 I created this unique form of collage. It all started when I wanted to make a really big (4' x 4') collage, but when I went to the frame shop, my jaw dropped at the expense. I decided I would come up with an alternative way to frame it. A friend had an old window frame sitting on the side of the house that happened to fit perfectly! The rest as they say is history. People saw my work and offered me their old windows, I found them at garage sales and dumps.
Sometimes I like to think I am painting with paper. My pieces end up as combinations of found images, handmade papers and my own philosophy. The textures and dimensions achieved by multiple layers of paper are as important to me as color. Because texture is a dominant feature, I tear rather than cut. On some pieces, I have physically separated layers of the image to create more depth.
My favorite part of working on windows, is the stain glass effect they have when light is cast behind them. Because of this I have really become more and more fascinated by stain glass and hope to take some classes in the future.
Artist's Stamps By Cynthia
aka Faux Posage, Cinderellas, Artistamps
What is an Artist's Stamp?
The underground movement of mail art, zines and the artist's stamp is difficult to describe to those unaware of its existence. Artistamps have been created since the dawn of the postage stamp and became more popular in the early 70's by some well known and unknown artists throughout the world.
Most frequently used to embellish envelopes and often traded among artists, it remains today a mostly unrecognized and male dominated art form. Labeled as Cinderella's in philatelic circles, they can be collected as postage stamps. Frequently made to both emulate and mock real postage stamps, they are NOT legal tender with the US postal service. Many stamp artists create a postal name and country from which their stamps originate. The Griffen and Sabine books have exposed many people to the underground world of artistamps.
Stamps from ExoticiaPost are printed on high quality paper with a HP DeskJet Printer and perforated on an antique stamp perforating machine, but most are NOT gummed. They are all Very limited editions. (under 25 of each Issue) These Issues will not be as archival as USPS stamps are they are not letterpress. They will fade in direct sunlight.
Want to learn MORE?
~my Lens on Creating and Collecting Artistamps
~ my Lens on Women in Artistamps
Coming Soon...
~Tutorials with PhotoShop: How to make your own stamps.
~What kind of paper should I use?
~The Holes, the Holes.. How do I make the Holes!
~Interviews with Stamp makers: Why do they do it?
and then there was Fabric
The fabric collage started when I took a class at ARTFEST several years ago.
Somewhere along the way, fabric intervened. The paper is still a passion, but now the fabric has begun to pile up as well. I don't usually think of myself as a pack rat but when I look at my stashes, I wonder. I imagine it came from my mother, who had a saying, "She who dies with the most fabric win." I'm not sure what the prize is, but I am in the running. At artfest I began to take my paper collage technique and apply it to fabric. These pieces are all fabric and the method is to use the patterns in the fabric to create faces and other images in new combinations. (Cat Rat Pictured above)
I also create fabric pieces in the more traditional collage manner of layering different images and then appliquéing them together.
Additionally, I have done a ton of small ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) in fabric. These include a combination of iron on transfer images, unique fabrics and quilting/ appliqué techniques. See my LENS on this technique.
These mini quilts quickly turned to DIY style purses.
As my passion for fabric continued I began to make dolls, experiment with dying and printing fabrics and clothing.
Where else will my fabric take me? Only time will tell. Look for my articles on fabric tips and techniques.
New Flickr Pictures
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U-Fly
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New eBay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Artists that currently INSPIRE me
- Trisha Hassler : Mixed Media
- Artist Janet Jones Collages, Assemblages, Mixed Media and Prints
- Artist Janet Jones combines collage, assemblage and mixed media with monoprints, linocuts, etchings
